Calls for quicker health and social care registration process as staff crisis worsens

Patricia Regan, Chairperson of the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland, said there is a shortage of occupational therapists to fill current vacancies.

Calls have been made to speed up the registration process for health and social care graduates as concerns mount over vacant positions and growing waiting lists.

CORU, Ireland’s multi-professional health regulator, has been urged to improve the process as staffing issues worsen.

Every year, CORU receives hundreds of applications for recognition and registration from new graduates in areas such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and social work.

That includes applicants with professional qualifications awarded outside the State, who are assessed through the recognition process, which involves assessing the qualification’s standard to ensure it aligns with the standards required here in Ireland.

This process can take up to four months.

Students who have their qualification recognised by CORU can apply for registration to work here in Ireland.

Timeline

The CORU website advises applicants that the timeline for processing registration applications is 14 weeks.

To date in 2022, it has taken 9.6 weeks on average to complete the registration process. In 2021, it took 8.8 weeks and in 2020, it took 9.2 weeks.

Despite the fact that CORU is exceeding its targets, calls have been made for the health regulator to speed up its registration process.

The calls come amid claims that the registration and recognition process is taking longer than average for UK-based graduates.

Patricia Regan, Chairperson of the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland (AOTI), said: “In light of the shortage of occupational therapists to fill current vacancies across health services in Ireland, the timeline for registration is more pressing now than ever.

“While ensuring the qualification recognition and registration process is not compromised, it would be desirable if CORU could identify a safe way to speed up the process for graduates, particularly in cases where multiple graduates from the same UK university, or with the same qualifications are applying to CORU.” 

Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould, who obtained the data from the Department of Health, said: “Given the dire need for additional therapists, this process needs to be fast-tracked.” 

Funding

Mr Gould called for CORU to receive the funding and resources it needs to fast-track applications, adding it is frustrating to hear “there are fully qualified therapists in this state ready to work who are forced to wait weeks and months to get registered”.

A spokesperson for CORU said the increase in processing times in 2022 was the result of “resource issues with the loss of key staff members”.

However, they added that the recognition of international qualification timeframes has dropped to 71 days during the first six weeks of Q3 2022.

“This reflects the benefits of increased staffing, a full changeover to online application submission and processing, additional assessment capacity, increased decision-making meetings, and reduced reliance on email communication.

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“Timeframes are regularly monitored and processes adjusted to respond as quickly as possible.

“The system of assessment as laid down in legislation is highly individualised, however, noting the frequency with which certain qualifications are presented, CORU has been developing and piloting an alternative mechanism over the past two years,” the spokesperson revealed. 

“The pilot is due to be completed in 2022 at which time a decision will be made on broader implementation of alternative mechanisms.”